"Despite the documented evidence of chess historian H.J.R. Murray, I have always thought that chess was invented by a goddess."
George Koltonowski, from Women in Chess, Players of the Modern Game

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

1st Metropolitan Chess FIDE Invitational

The second half of the 1st Metropolitan Chess FIDE Invitational took place this past weekend, November 20-21, 2010 in Los Angeles, California. This was the first of what the Metropolitan Chess Club of Los Angeles hopes will be a continuing series of norm invitationals held every two months or so. It is an ambitious undertaking, and I wish them luck. Thanks much to the sponsors who supported this tournament: www.chess.com, LawyerFy, Fashion Business, Inc, Betty Bottom, Hippie Chips, Jason's Wine and Spirits, and Chess Lecture.

We need more events designed to provide American players with opportunities to earn norms. Two organizers of norm tournaments that come to mind are the American Chess Association in Illinois and SPICE at Texas Tech in Lubbock, Texas.

The lone female in this inaugural event, Tatev Abrahamyan, did not earn a norm. To do so, she needed 6.0/9 but, alas, her final score was 3.5/9. Not a good result. I believe Abrahamyan is a much better player than her results in this tournament show - and I don't think she wasn't aiming for draws. In 9 games she had 4 losses. The games have been submitted to The Week in Chess and will probably be published shortly. TWIC is great at producing reports shortly after information is submitted on a tournament.

Two players came close to earning those coveted norms but -- You can find the final cross-table at chess.com's coverage of this tournament along with a summary of the final action and some games to play through.

The games were viewable on chess.com throughout the tournament through the live chess function, and the last round of the tournament was broadcast on www.chess.com/tv with GM Melikset Khachiyan. For - I assume - members, you can watch the playback via the on demand function.

The games will be available on the Southern California Chess Federation home page, www.scchess.com.

Good luck for the next norm event, and here's hoping more chess femmes are invited to play in future events, and that there are many more Invitationals in Metropolitan Chess Club's future.

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"Advanced Chess" Leon 2002

About Me

I'm one of the founders of Goddesschess, which went online May 6, 1999. I earned an under-graduate degree in history and economics going to college part-time nights, weekends and summer school while working full-time, and went on to earn a post-graduate degree (J.D.) I love the challenge of research, and spend my spare time reading and writing about my favorite subjects, travelling and working in my gardens. My family and my friends are most important in my life. For the second half of my life, I'm focusing on "doable" things to help local chess initiatives, starting in my own home town. And I'm experiencing a sort of personal "Renaissance" that is leaving me rather breathless...